Schönhage and Strassen themselves invented an algorithm needing fewer than n 2 operations, but were unable to get it down to n * log(n). In general, if n represents the number of digits in each number, the answer can be arrived at in n 2 operations. In other words, if we were to multiply the numbers 314 by 159 with the usual primary school method, we would need to calculate 9 digit-by-digit products (see video).
![digit whiz digit whiz](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1418/0968/products/20435_sample_07_1024x1024.jpg)
“Our paper gives the first known example of an algorithm that achieves this.” “They predicted that there should exist an algorithm that multiplies n-digit numbers using essentially n * log(n) basic operations. “More technically, we have proved a 1971 conjecture of Schönhage and Strassen about the complexity of integer multiplication,” A/Professor Harvey says.
![digit whiz digit whiz](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lesson01-thebasicprincipleofcountingws-090630221401-phpapp01/95/worksheet-the-basic-principle-of-counting-1-728.jpg)
![digit whiz digit whiz](https://image2.slideserve.com/3908405/digit-whiz-l.jpg)
A UNSW Sydney mathematician has helped solve a decades-old maths riddle that allows multiplication of huge numbers in a much faster time.Īssociate Professor David Harvey, from UNSW’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, has developed a new method for multiplying together huge numbers, which is much faster than the familiar “long multiplication” method that we all learn at primary school.